Conflict, a Basic Social Need
Once a concept ‘conflict’ heard, what do
hearers understand? Destructive or constructive? All is possible. Conflict may
be defined as ‘an escalation of a disagreement; manifested by “conflict
behavior, starting with disagreement, and followed by verbal abuse.” It is also
‘disagreements in viewpoints and opinion, which hearten greater cognitive
understanding, as cited by Jehn and Mannix. The understanding and thinking
corrupted by destructive conflict reported worldwide make individuals
understand destructive at first and they have reason; the wide-reaching
terrorist attacks are in line of eroding constructive conflict. As a human
being, what do we need in a world full of conflicts? Do we need nations,
society, cooperation, families, friendship… without conflict?
Among the
characteristics of society, we recite- society depends on differences. Disparities result from the fact that people
do not have the same way and capacity of thinking as well as understanding.
Society has weak and strong people in all corners of life. The universal truth
is that under the heaven, there are differences which result in conflicts,
either destructive or constructive. What do we chiefly need to live
good-naturedly in this world, which seems to partially live as Creator would
expect?
Constructive conflict, a key development channel
Undoubtedly,
constructive conflict should be understood in the clear perspective; the
peaceful beneficial context. It refers to disagreements that welcomes different
ideas and worldviews, in an effort to get agreeable viewpoint about issue under
discussion or move company (group, associations, friends…) toward its goals and
mission. This kind of conflict increases productivity, rather than obstructs it
because it is seen as task conflict that leads to better decision making and
increased satisfaction with the group decision. Constructive conflict is the
only peaceful conflict that should be recommended in development process.
According to different writers (Amason and Sapienza, Sophia Jowett and
Irving Janis) we may recite the following types of the conflict which leads
to better stage of thinking, understanding and success process.
Content conflict: individuals disagree about how to
deal with a certain issue. It can be beneficial, increasing motivation and encouraging
discussion. Task conflict is related
to disagreements in viewpoints and opinion about a particular task. It is found
to be beneficial in view of the fact of encouraging diversity of opinions,
although care should be taken to avoid its development into process or
relationship conflict which are harmful. Cognitive
conflict: the conflict is task-oriented and stems from differences in
perspective or judgment (whereas affective conflict is emotional and arises
from personal differences and disputes). The conflict, as proposed by Irving
Janis, is beneficial in groups and committees to avoid the error of "
group think," but it should be the one from above and care should be taken
to avoid bad result.